Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can provide a flexible, maneuverable, and compact solution to aerial transportation. By design, UAVs can employ an active control system that continuously monitors and adjusts motors and control surfaces to maintain in-flight stability. However, actively controlled UAVs can be inherently unstable, and a compromised system health condition of an active control system can lead to catastrophic failure of the UAV.
Many conventional aircraft are designed to employ a passive control system that creates stability of the aircraft during flight without need for continuous controls. A passively controlled aircraft does not require the continuous monitoring and adjustment of motors and control surfaces to maintain in-flight-stability. Instead, control surfaces and other geometries can be used to naturally adjust an orientation and maintain in-flight stability. However, passively controlled aircraft have some drawbacks. By design, the inclusion of control surfaces and other geometries to naturally maintain in-flight stability means that a passively controlled aircraft is likely to be less maneuverable and less compact than its actively controlled counterpart is.